Hello everyone I am new to the business of posting so my apologies if I have not quite got this right. I am wanting to enhance some of my model jcbs (mostly 1:35) scale with hydraulic hoses and was also thinking of removing the rear bucket on my Britain's 3c to paint it red. Can anyone offer any help or advice? I would really be grateful for any help or suggestions

Andyjcbman1 wrote:Thanks Jeremy, good idea. How do I go about removing the bucket to re-paint it? Would like to replicate the same 3c as Julian Carder so will also need the front bucket forks too!

Just a guess here but most models have rams, buckets, arms etc. held in place by brass rivets so you would need to carefully drill the one side of the rivet off and the pin should drive out okay, you'll need to retain the rivet for its size, measure the diameter with a vernier calliper. When fitting the bucket back on I would purchase a length of silver steel from an engineers merchant and cut new securing pins to length, these will simply slide into place but unlike the rivets will not be secured, this should not hurt as its a model and not a toy.Other members may have better ideas than this but that's how I would tackle the problem.

If you can find a decent modelling shop one that sells plasticard etc they usually sell brass strip and brass tubing, i have various diameters of brass tubing here. The you drill out you old rivet cut a slightly longer piece of brass tube, then place it back into the bucket on the model using a nice round centre punch on the tube then the same again on the opposite side and you have made your brass rivet (all of those metalwork lessons at school did pay off) i do alot of repairs and a few conversions on conrad and NZG models and thats the way i have always done it.